Economic Affairs: Year In Review 2004

The IMF-projected acceleration in world GDP to 5% from 3.9% in 2003 made growth in 2004 the fastest in three decades. The expansion in trade and output was unexpected. It was led by the U.S. and Japan, with only lacklustre recovery in the euro zone. The U.S. demand was fueled by investment and consumption at the expense of growing fiscal and current-account deficits, which in turn led to an apparently relentless decline in the value of the dollar. This created concerns at home and abroad. In contrast, expansion in Japan and the euro zone was export driven. (For Real Gross Domestic Products of Selected Developed Countries, seeTable; for Changes in Output in Less-Developed Countries, seeTable.)

While the global economy remained heavily dependent on the U.S., the economic emphasis was shifting to Asia, where much faster growth was being fueled by domestic and external demand. In this regard China’s role was paramount. Its remarkable economic performance was helped by its membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO) and was underpinning growth in neighbouring countries, including Japan. With exports and imports rising at around 35%, China’s demand pushed up the prices of many commodities, particularly oil, which had global repercussions on producers and user countries. The increased economic power of China gave it new confidence and outspokenness that surprised many observers. In November China’s central bank responded to growing pressure for a revaluation of its currency to help curb the soaring U.S. trade deficit, proffering advice to the U.S. and criticism of U.S. policies.

For the third consecutive year, global inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) fell. The 17.6% decline to $560 billion in 2003 was accounted for by the 28% decrease to developed countries ($384 billion), with flows to the U.S. dropping 45% to $40 billion. FDI in less-developed countries (LDCs) rose 9%, with increases to Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. China overtook the U.S. to become the world’s largest recipient of FDI. Competition to attract investment continued to be strong, and 82 countries made 220 regulatory changes to make their countries more favourable destinations, while some resumed privatization programs.

Fundamental changes in the pattern of investment continued. Transnational corporations from LDCs increased their share of FDI stock to $859 billion following a rise of 8% in 2003. In all regions there was a shift in the composition of FDI away from the primary sector and manufacturing. The services sector accounted for two-thirds of all FDI inflows and some 60% of FDI stock, compared with one-quarter in the 1970s and less than half in 1990. While services were growing increasingly important, many were not tradable and had to be produced when and where they were consumed. The increasing availability of information and communications, however, was enabling more services to be produced in one location and consumed in another. This was creating a growing trend toward offshoring and outsourcing both to cut costs and increase access to skills to improve the quality of services offered. (SeeSpecial Report.)

National Economic Policies

The IMF projected a 3.6% rise in GDP in the advanced countries following a 2.1% increase in 2003. (For Standardized Unemployment Rates in Selected Developed Countries, seeTable.)

Standardized Unemployment Rates in Selected Developed Countries % of total labour force

United States

The IMF projected growth in 2004 of 4.3%, compared with the 3% achieved in 2003. The early part of the year was marked by strong expansion, with first-quarter output rising 4.5% (annualized rate). In the second quarter, the quarter-on-quarter rate decelerated sharply to an annualized rate of 3.3%, largely because of an unexpected slowdown in personal consumption. A drop in consumer confidence was prompted by increased oil prices and slower-than-expected employment growth; spending on durable goods, particularly motor vehicles, suffered most. In the second half, growth accelerated, with third-quarter output rising at an annualized 4.4%, helped by a recovery in personal consumption to an annual growth rate of 4% against 1.6% in the second quarter.

During the year the fall in the value of the dollar and the rising cost of oil were causes for concern, but the economy demonstrated a resilience that surprised many observers. It was better able to absorb increased oil costs than it had been at the time of previous oil shocks (1973, 1979, and 1991). In 2004 corporate profits and business investment remained strong, and while interest-rate rises had removed some of the stimulus to business activity, monetary policy was still supportive. The fears of deflation that were prevalent at the end of 2003 ironically gave way to apprehension in the first half of the year that inflation would resurface. This prompted the U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) to reassure financial markets that it was prepared to intervene. In the second half of the year, more aggressive prices pushed the consumer price index (CPI) to end 2004 up 3.3% on December 2003, although the core rate (excluding food and energy) rose only 2.2%. There was limited pressure from wages, which in December were rising at 2.7% above year-earlier levels. While job creation was weak in the first half of the year, the number of hours worked increased by an annualized 4.1% in the third quarter, and the unemployment rate, at 5.4% in December, was well down on the year before (5.7%).

As in 2003, public finances were a cause of domestic and international concern. The federal deficit for the year was $422 billion, or 3.6% of GDP. Spending increases under Pres. George W. Bush had escalated to an annual average 5.1% from 1.5% and 1.9% under former presidents Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, respectively. To maintain the government’s borrowing ability, in November the president signed into law an $800 billion increase in the U.S. government’s debt limit to $8.18 trillion; this brought the amount by which the limit had been raised to 25% since he took office in 2001. This allayed international fears that the U.S. would default on its debt. At the same time, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan was warning that the country’s burgeoning current-account deficit was “increasingly less tenable.” His comments on November 19 in an address to finance ministers and central bank governors in Frankfurt, Ger., ahead of the Group of 20 (G-20) meeting in Berlin had the effect of sending the dollar into further decline.

United Kingdom

For most of the year, the U.K. economy remained surprisingly resilient, and output was projected to expand at an above-trend rate of 3.4%, although the outcome was likely to be closer to 3%. Output in the second quarter rose at an annual rate of 3.7%, the fastest in four years. The third quarter saw a marked slowdown. Several industries experienced decline, and overall industrial output contracted by 1.4% following a 1.2% increase in the second quarter. Service-sector activity also moderated, and retail spending grew more slowly.

Much of the impetus came from private consumption that was being supported by continued income growth and rising housing wealth. Consumer spending had outpaced GDP growth for the previous eight years. A continuing boom in the housing market, where prices had been rising at around 20% annually for five years, low unemployment, and an economy running at close to capacity generated fears of overheating. By the second half of the year, interest-rate increases were dampening the housing market, and in November the number of mortgage approvals fell to 77,000 in the steepest drop since 1995. House prices fell marginally in October and December, and annual house price inflation in 2004 eased to 12.7% from 15% in 2003. Jobs in the private sector declined slightly during the year, while public-sector employment continued to increase. Although the unemployment rate reached a new low at 4.6%, the number of unemployed claimants rose slightly in September and October, while total employment at 28.4 million was at its highest since records began in 1984. At the same time, employment in manufacturing fell to a record low of 3.35 million.

Nevertheless, the manufacturing industry spearheaded growth in e-commerce, which more than doubled to £40 billion (£1 = about $1.79 at year-end 2003) in 2003, compared with 2002. Manufacturers’ sales almost trebled to £15 billion as many required their customers to order online to keep costs down. Research showed that the larger the company was, the more it used the Internet. Nearly a third of spending by businesses with more than 1,000 employees was online, compared with 14% by companies with fewer than 10 employees. While consumers increased their online shopping by 78% in 2003, their share of online spending fell to 29%. The U.K. had the largest e-commerce economy in Europe.

Japan

The strong economic recovery in 2003 continued to gather momentum in early 2004, and output was projected to increase by 4.4% following a 2.5% rise in 2003. In the first quarter, output rose sharply to an annualized rate of 6.3%, but it fell in the second quarter to 1.3%, largely because of the drawing down of inventories and a decline in public final demand. Recovery continued to falter, with third-quarter annual growth in real GDP slowing to 0.3%, although in nominal terms the rate accelerated and even in real terms the year-on-year figures showed real GDP was still growing at 3.9%. Output for the year was likely to rise by nearer to 4%. The increased cost of oil imports on which Japan was heavily dependent was not helping the recovery. Japan was the world’s third largest oil consumer, after the U.S. and China, but led the world in energy efficiency. A second fact hindering recovery was the slowdown in China, which had become Japan’s largest trading partner.

There were signs that after nine years of deflation, prices had stabilized and would begin to rise, bringing to an end the malaise that had eroded corporate profits and increased the real cost of the debt burden on borrowers. In November the CPI was up 0.8% on a year earlier, although it was still half a percentage point down over the year. Restructuring of the labour market continued, and labour was becoming more flexible. Many companies were no longer able to offer employees the traditional job for life, and more people were moving between jobs. Given the need to supplement family incomes and to insure against redundancy, female participation in the workforce was increasing. Because of the changes being made, unit labour costs declined, productivity was rising, and wage costs were lower. At the same time, the job-offers-to-applicants ratio rose to a 10-year high, and the unemployment rate in November fell to 4.5%, its lowest level since January 1999.

Euro Zone

As in 2003, the euro zone as a whole lagged the performance of Japan, the U.K., and the U.S. The economy recovered strongly in the first half of the year, and output was projected to increase 2.2%, compared with a 0.5% expansion in 2003. The promising start gave way to a dismal performance in the second half, and output growth for the year was unlikely to reach 2% in the wake of three years of below-trend growth. Factors contributing to the deterioration included the increased cost of oil imports and the weaker global conditions. International competitiveness was eroded by the appreciation of the euro. In general, the area remained dependent on external demand. In the first half of the year, a surge in exports pushed up industrial output, particularly in Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, and Spain, and in September industrial production was running at 2.9% above year-earlier levels. The rate of consumer price inflation showed signs of accelerating and for much of the year was running at slightly above the European Central Bank’s 2% ceiling. Higher oil costs and indirect tax increases were largely responsible, but given the high level of unemployment—which in November stood at 8.9%, unchanged over a year earlier—there was no fear of a wage-price spiral.

The composition and pace of growth varied widely across the region. In Germany, the euro zone’s largest country, output was projected to increase by 2% following a 0.1% decline in 2003, but it was unlikely to exceed 1.5%. The surge in exports in the first half of the year had spearheaded the euro-zone recovery but moderated in the second half because of the fall in global demand, the stronger euro, and higher oil prices. Domestic demand during the year remained weak. Investment spending fell 2.5% year on year in the second quarter—the 14th consecutive decline. Despite household incomes’ being boosted by lower taxes, in the first half of 2004, consumer spending remained flat, and retail sales were down 1.5% in the third quarter. Rigidities in the labour market kept the level of unemployment high and intractable, and at 10.7% in October, it was up on a year before (10.5%) and did little to boost consumer confidence. In France economic growth was more broad-based, and output was increasing at double the rate in Germany. France, however, also suffered high unemployment, which in November stood at 9.9%, unchanged from a year earlier. Rapid expansion in France in the first half of the year was fueled by strong domestic demand, with household and government spending and investment all contributing, but output faltered in the second half.

The Countries in Transition

Nearly all countries participated in the acceleration in output to 6.1% in 2004 from 5.6% in 2003. In the first half of the year, significant moves were made toward closer integration within Europe. On May 1 eight countries of Central and Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia) joined the European Union, together with Cyprus and Malta. This subjected them to much tighter fiscal discipline to meet the requirements of the EU Stability and Growth Pact. (SeeWorld Affairs: European Union:Sidebar.) In June, Estonia, Lithuania, and Slovenia joined the European exchange-rate mechanism in a move toward adoption of the euro. Entry for the others was delayed so that they could reduce their budget deficits and inflation rates. The initial effects of accession were mixed. It contributed to acceleration in inflation to 4.5% (from 2.9% in 2003) but improved investment potential and export opportunities.

As it had since 2000, output increased fastest in the Commonwealth of Independent States, where growth was underpinned by high commodity prices. The highest projected growth rates were for Armenia (7%), Azerbaijan (9.1%), Kazakhstan (9%), and Tajikistan (10%). Ukraine, where output was projected to increase by 12.5%, was expected to be the star performer before the uncertainty that followed the elections. (SeeWorld Affairs: Ukraine.) In Russia output was expected to decelerate slightly to 6.9%. In most of the southeastern European countries, output gains were made and GDP was projected to increase 5% from 4.4% in 2003, with Albania (6.2%) and Romania (5.8%) outperforming, while Macedonia lagged behind the trend (2.5%) because of a lack of investment. In nearly all countries of the region, inflation rates rose, and the median rate was projected to increase from 4.8% to 6.3%. Notable exceptions were Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, and Belarus, where there were sharp drops in double-digit rates.

Less-Developed Countries

The IMF projected acceleration in output in the LDCs to 6.6% in 2004 from 6.1% in 2003, which was the fastest growth rate in a decade. While some industrialized countries provided strong markets, it was the dynamic performance of the large LDCs, particularly China and India, that boosted LDCs as a whole. Regional disparities remained, but these were less than in recent years. Latin America had been the laggard in 2003, but in 2004 that region’s output increased faster than at any other time since 1997. (For Changes in Consumer Prices in Less-Developed Countries, seeTable.)

Changes in Consumer Prices in Less-Developed Countries % change from preceding year

Area

2000

2001

2002

2003

20041

All less-developed countries

7.3

6.8

6.0

6.1

6.0

Regional groups

Africa

13.1

12.0

9.7

10.3

8.4

Asia

1.9

2.7

2.1

2.6

4.5

Middle East

8.5

7.1

7.5

8.0

9.2

Western Hemisphere

6.7

6.0

9.0

10.6

6.5

1Projected. Source: IMF World Economic Outlook,. September 2004.

Led by China, LDCs in Asia continued to spearhead growth. East Asian economies grew by 8.4% in the first half of the year, though the rate for the year was expected to slow to 7.3%. China was the world’s most dynamic economy in 2004, expanding by 9.6% in the first half of the year. Despite the imposition of “macroeconomic controls” to rein in growth and prevent overheating, growth over the year was 9.5%, while the rate of inflation accelerated, reaching a seven-year high of 4.4% in May. The economies of Taiwan and Hong Kong were also buoyant. Investment provided strong stimulus, and although the flow into China slowed, it was still running 20–30% above year-earlier levels. Imports mainly of raw materials spiraled to more than 20% and outpaced exports. Increased domestic demand in all three economies contributed to GDP growth. Because of weaker domestic demand and the higher cost of oil, the South Korean economy performed less well as the year progressed.

After three years of stagnation, output in Latin America staged an impressive recovery and was expected to increase by 4.6%. Nearly all countries performed better. Brazil resumed robust growth of 4%, following a 0.2% decline in 2003. Fears that Mexico (up 4%) would lose market share to China abated as exports rose strongly and large European and American firms made new investments. Recovery in Argentina (7%) continued, helped by high commodity prices. The major oil exporters (Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, and Venezuela) benefited from higher prices, while the damage to oil importers was largely offset by increased prices of agricultural products (in Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay) and metals (Chile, Jamaica, and Peru). Lower interest rates enabled many countries to reschedule their debt.

In the Middle East growth slowed from 6% to a projected 5.1%. Risks associated with the conflict in Iraq and fears of terrorist attacks on oil infrastructures in the region deterred investors. There was little scope for oil production to increase as it had in 2003. Nevertheless, incomes in the oil-exporting countries were rising, and domestic demand was thus increasing. In the Mashreq countries (Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria), exports strengthened, helped in Egypt by a depreciation of the Egyptian pound, which in turn exacerbated the inflation rate.

Output in Africa rose 4.5%, the fastest since 1996. Lagging behind the trend was South Africa, which accounted for half the GDP of sub-Saharan Africa but only 11% of the population. While the 40% appreciation of the South African rand since 2002 had helped reduce inflation, it slowed export growth and stimulated imports. Elsewhere the oil-importing countries suffered from increased costs, but many countries benefited from both increased oil production (Angola, Chad, and Equatorial Guinea) and an end to the drought (Malawi and Rwanda). In several countries—notably Burundi, the Central African Republic, and Madagascar—greater political stability increased investor and consumer confidence. In Zimbabwe the steep economic decline continued, with output down (−5.2%) for the sixth consecutive year and consumer prices up by 350%. GDP growth in Nigeria slowed from 10.7% to 4% as the oil production gains in 2003 leveled off.

International Trade and Payments

The increase in the volume of world trade in goods and services was expected to exceed the projected 8.8% in 2004, which was the third consecutive year of strong recovery. This followed an expansion of 5.1% in 2003 and reflected the high level of industrial output and investment activity. China accounted for more than 20% of the increase in merchandise trade, as its trading role was enhanced by WTO membership and its share of world exports doubled from 2.9% to 5.8% between 2000 and 2004. China’s demand for minerals and oil bolstered the volume of its imports, which rose by a third over the year, and stimulated world commodity prices. For the eighth time in nine years, the export volume growth of LDCs (10.8%) exceeded that of the advanced economies (8.1%). In dollar values world exports were projected to rise 17.4% to $10,806,000,000,000. Services accounted for 80% of the total and grew by 14.2%.

Revenue from international tourism, which was the world’s largest export industry and a major foreign-exchange earner ($500 billion in 2002) for many countries, was expected to reach a new high. The acceleration in economic growth and greater business and consumer confidence led to a strong recovery. The World Tourism Organization projected a 10% rise in arrivals from the 691 million recorded in 2003, the biggest increase in 20 years. All regions registered strong gains in the first eight months of 2004, with 37% more arrivals in Asia and the Pacific, which in 2003 had been adversely affected by the SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, and 12% more in North America following three years of decline. The disruption of the Iraq conflict ceased to deter travelers, and Middle East arrivals rose by 24%. In absolute numbers Europe, which accounted for nearly 60% of all arrivals in 2003, experienced the second largest increase, with 16 million more arrivals, although this translated into a 6% increase.

Current-account imbalances in the world economy became the largest in modern history. The overall current account of the balance of payments in the advanced economies remained in deficit for the sixth straight year. The total surplus rose from $247 billion to $266 billion. The U.S. deficit again exceeded the total surplus and at $63l billion had increased from the year before ($531 billion) to 5.4% of GDP. Its size provoked much international comment and speculation. When Fed Chairman Greenspan criticized this deficit as unsustainable, the downward pressure on the already-depreciating dollar increased. The growth in the deficit occurred in spite of the increase in exports aided by the weaker dollar. This was outpaced by the higher cost of oil, which added at least $10 billion a month to the widening deficit, as well as the rise in imports to meet the unexpectedly strong demand. The U.S. had a large and growing bilateral trade deficit with China that was a periodic cause of friction. This was at the expense of China’s large trade deficit with other LDCs from which it imported the intermediate and primary goods to produce the finished goods it exported to the U.S.

The largest deficits were in the Anglo-Saxon countries, with that in the U.K. rising to $43 billion ($33 billion) but only 2% of GDP, while in Australia, at $32 billion, it reached 5.9% of GDP. The euro zone surplus nearly tripled to $72 million because of the surge in Germany’s surplus from $53 billion to $119 billion, while in Japan the surplus reached $159 million ($136 billion). The surplus of the four Asian newly industrialized countries (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan) was unchanged from 2003 at $85 billion.

After many years in deficit, the LDCs were in surplus for the fifth straight year. The surplus rose strongly to $201 billion from $149 billion in 2003, boosted by a near doubling of the Middle East surplus to $104 billion. The less-developed Asian countries’ surplus fell from $86 billion to $69 billion as a result of the upsurge in imports. The aggregate positions of the LDC regions obscured the weakness of the more than 50 individual countries that had deficits in excess of 5% of GDP. Most of these were in Africa and Latin America. Indebtedness of all LDC regions except Africa and Latin America increased slightly, raising the total to $2,763,000,000,000.

Interest Rates

Early in 2004 the developed countries expected that falling inflation rates (or even deflation) and historically low interest rates would continue to be the norm. This changed as the U.S. economy exhibited growing strength and increasing employment rates. The extent and speed of tightening was the only question. The Fed made its first move to tighten the loose U.S. monetary policy on June 30 with a quarter-point rise. Four more quarter-point hikes brought the rate to 2.25% by year’s end. In the euro zone Germany’s hopes of interest-rate reductions were dashed by the expected rise in the U.S., as well as by an acceleration in the zone’s inflation rate. The U.K. rate rose moderately and finished 2004 at 4.75%, up by 0.75% over the year. In Japan the authorities kept their commitment to a zero-rate policy. Tightening had taken place earlier than in the U.S. in Switzerland and New Zealand, while in Australia rates were already higher in 2003 and remained unchanged in 2004 because inflationary pressures were building.

An important influence on inflation and the level of interest rates in the industrialized countries was the housing “bubble.” In 2004 the “bubble” and risk that it would burst became a key issue for many governments. They needed to dampen the markets by raising interest rates but not so fast or so high that the bubbles burst, which would cause consumer spending to collapse. In many countries prices had been rising at an accelerating rate for several years, and the property markets were exhibiting a high degree of synchronization. Cumulative growth rates between 1995 and 2003 were well in excess of consumer prices. Most affected were Ireland, where prices rose 193%, the U.K. (146%), Spain (122%), and The Netherlands and Australia (both up 110%). In the U.S. the 60% price rise concealed higher increases in certain, mainly coastal, areas.

Exchange Rates

The increase in the size of the U.S. public and current-account deficits led to the continued depreciation of the U.S. dollar, which was the main determinant of 2004 exchange-rate movements worldwide. In the industrialized countries nearly all currencies appreciated against the dollar on trade-weighted terms over the year. The Australian dollar fell marginally and was an exception. Among the major LDCs only the Chinese currency (renminbi) depreciated. Because it was pegged to the dollar, the renminbi fell 10.7% in both local currency and dollar terms between Dec. 31, 2003, and Dec. 31, 2004. In most other countries the local currencies appreciated mainly because of improved oil and other commodity prices or because of increased confidence in their economies.

Among the industrialized countries, the extent to which the euro rose against the dollar surprised many observers. Given the relative weakness of the euro-zone economy and the expectation that its interest rates would hold steady while those in the U.S. rose, there was no rational explanation. While the exchange rate rose nearly 8% over the year, its trade-weighted value had increased only 6.2%. Against British sterling the euro weakened in the first half of the year, after which it strengthened, with sterling back to €1.41. Intervention by the authorities in Japan to support the yen meant that its rise was negligible in trade-weighted terms and appreciated less than 5% in currency units. Of significance, however, was the trade-weighted rise of 10% in the Canadian dollar.

The perceived undervaluation of the renminbi provoked criticism from industrialized countries that believed China should change its fixed exchange-rate policy, under which the renminbi was fixed to the dollar. In November the deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China made it clear that China would not be rushed into revaluation. Toward year’s end, however, rumours that China might move some of its reserves out of dollars caused panic in currency markets. As of September 2004, China’s central bank held $174.4 billion in U.S. Treasury Bonds and was the second largest foreign holder, after Japan. Fears persisted that China and other Asian central banks, which had bought huge amounts of dollars to curb the appreciation of their own currencies, might dump U.S. assets to avoid large losses as the dollar fell.

Stock Markets

Confidence in equities returned in 2004. As the year began, investors seemed to base their longer-term strategies on the generally positive outlook for the corporate sector. Improved global growth prospects, corporate financial strength, and rising stock prices buoyed investors’ confidence so well that the MSCI World index, which had gained 32% in 2003, gained a further 3% in just the first eight weeks of 2004. Thereafter, equities tended to trade within a narrow price range, caught between geopolitical uncertainty, oil-price hikes, and rising official interest rates on the one hand and robust corporate performance on the other.

Markets were shaken by the terrorist attacks in Madrid on March 11 and entertained niggling worries about the possible effect of rising official interest rates on consumer spending in countries undergoing a housing boom, such as the U.K., Spain, and Ireland. Major stock markets weakened in late March and again in late May and mid-August. Equity investors turned more risk-averse in the second and third quarters of 2004 on concerns about the real strength of the global economic recovery. More immediately behind these reversals, though, were corporate profit warnings and weaker-than-expected macroeconomic data. By the end of August, the Standard & Poor’s index of 500 large-company stocks (S&P 500) was 3% lower than at the end of June, and similarly, the Dow Jones Euro STOXX index of 50 European blue-chip equities and the Tokyo Stock Price Index (TOPIX) of large-company stocks were down 3% and 4%, respectively. Warnings of lower-than-expected profits by technology firms such as Cisco Systems, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, and Intel hit particularly hard. Oil prices rose steadily from the end of June, peaking in October at more than $55 a barrel. Investors seemed less concerned about the potential for inflation, however, than the possible dampening effect on aggregate demand and corporate profits.

After mid-August, major equity markets climbed back to earlier levels and then rose a little, or at least held steady. World stock markets rose sharply on the decisive result of the U.S. presidential election on November 2. (SeeWorld Affairs: United States:Special Report.) The widely followed Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) immediately gained as much as 150 points, or 1.5%, before drifting lower and then rose to peak at 10,854.54 on December 28. After the election the Financial Times Stock Exchange index of 100 stocks (FTSE 100) closed at 4718.5, the highest level since June 2002, before continuing its climb to the year’s high (4820.10) on December 30. As of December 1 the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) World index was up 10%; it finished the year at a 12-month high of 1170.74, a 13% gain on the year. (For Selected Major World Stock Market Indexes, seeTable.)

United States

The American public’s preoccupation with the presidential election, a sometimes murky economic outlook, and continuing unrest abroad resulted in investors’ spending much of 2004 waiting for uncertainties to resolve. As a result, stocks traded in a narrow range for much of the year until November, when the reelection of Pres. George W. Bush sparked a sustained year-end rally in the markets. The S&P 500, a broad gauge of the overall market, ended the year up 8.99%. The Nasdaq (National Association of Securities Dealers automated quotations) composite index gained 8.59%, but the more narrowly focused DJIA climbed only 3.15% in value. (For Closing Prices of Selected U.S. Stock Market Indexes, seeEncyclopædia Britannica, Inc..)

The year began on a relatively bullish note, but the Federal Reserve (Fed) set a different tone on January 28 when it announced that after three years of aggressively low interest rates, the risk of inflation was becoming substantial enough to make higher rates desirable in the future. In the months that followed, the Fed’s rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) made good on its promise by raising its short-term interest-rate target 0.25% a total of five times. While this left the key federal funds rate at 2.25% (still lower than it had been in four decades), companies that had become accustomed to even lower borrowing costs suffered nonetheless, and their shares reflected this.

Fear of looming higher interest rates dominated investor behaviour in 2004. By February the market had adopted a pattern of perversely rewarding signs of economic weakness in the hope that it would delay the inevitable rate increase, while news that would traditionally have been considered positive was shunned as giving the Fed a reason to move with greater speed. Hedge funds (and other speculative investors), which eschew traditional long-term investment strategies in order to capture short-term trading advantages, fed into this contrarian activity. Once limited to a handful of secretive investment firms, the hedge fund industry had grown to encompass about 8,000 hedge funds controlling more than $900 billion in assets and accounting for fully half of all stock trading volume. On the whole, the retail investors who drove stock prices higher in the late 1990s remained largely absent, driven away by the losses that followed the market boom.

Hedge fund speculation played a role in an unprecedented rally in the oil market, but strong demand from a recovering global economy and supply disruptions in several nations ranging from Iraq to Russia (where government pressure shut down leading oil producer Yukos) were more substantial factors. On October 25 the benchmark contract for light sweet crude touched an all-time high of $55.67 a barrel. While oil prices eventually receded, businesses and consumers alike still suffered under the increased burden of buying fuel.

In 2003 tax cuts and low interest rates had created a catalyst for explosive economic growth. As the stimulating effects of these policies waned in 2004, however, economic expansion slowed to a more subdued but sustainable pace. The labour market remained a controversial topic throughout the year, and inflation, led by rising fuel and commodity prices, became a threat to continued economic expansion—and investor sentiment—as the year wore on.

All 10 broad stock sectors classified by Dow Jones extended their 2003 rallies in 2004, though some showed only narrow gains. Energy stocks, an obvious beneficiary of the oil boom, ended the year up 29.94% as activity increased in segments of the oil and gas industry, from the giant producers to small companies prospecting for fresh sources of supply. China’s hunger for steel and other basic materials for its own economic expansion supported a 10.62% gain for commodities producers. The telecommunications sector was another of the year’s winners, climbing 14.88% as investors finally overcame their reluctance to add traditional telephone stocks to their already wireless-rich portfolios. On the other hand, demand waned for technology shares, the darlings of 2003, leaving the sector up only 1.37%. Health care stocks also struggled to rise 3.21%, pulled lower by regulatory concerns and the looming expiration of key drug patents.

Within narrower segments of the market, mining companies logged the highest returns of any industry for the second year in a row, up 97.15%, followed once again by consumer electronics makers, which gained 73.82%. The high price of fuel translated into strong performance for oil-field-equipment stocks, as well as second-tier petroleum producers and, significantly, shares in coal-mining companies. Still, 9 of the market’s 83 industrial groups—a diverse array of companies ranging from the long-suffering airlines and semiconductor manufacturers to automobile makers—lost ground in 2004.

Some of the market’s largest companies struggled during the year as investors shifted their focus from traditional blue-chip stocks to more obscure names with growth potential. As a result, the Dow Jones industrials languished, while the Russell 2000 index, stuffed with small-capitalization (small-cap) growth companies, surged 17% to 651.57. The April 8 revision of the DJIA components also cooled interest in the three companies dropped from the venerable index (AT&T, Eastman Kodak, and International Paper) while fueling short-term demand for their replacements (American International Group, Pfizer, and Verizon Communications) from index fund managers and retail investors alike. (For Change in Share Price of Selected U.S. Blue-Chip Stocks, seeTable.)

Change in Share Price of Selected U.S. Blue-Chip Stocks1 (in U.S. dollars)

Company

Starting price January 2004

Closing price year-end 2004

Percent change

General Electric Co.

30.98

36.50

17.82

ExxonMobil Corp.

41.00

51.26

25.02

Microsoft Corp.

27.37

26.72

-2.37

Citigroup, Inc.

48.54

48.18

-0.74

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

53.05

52.82

-0.43

Pfizer, Inc.

35.33

26.89

-23.89

Johnson & Johnson

51.66

63.42

22.76

American International Group, Inc.

66.28

65.67

-0.92

International Business Machines Corp.

92.68

98.58

6.37

Intel Corp.

32.05

23.39

-27.02

Procter & Gamble Co.2

49.50

55.08

11.27

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.

36.73

39.01

6.21

Altria Group, Inc.

54.42

61.10

12.27

Verizon Communications, Inc.

35.08

40.51

15.48

Coca-Cola Co.

50.75

41.64

-17.95

Home Depot, Inc.

35.49

42.74

20.43

SBC Communications, Inc.

26.07

25.77

-1.15

American Express Co.

48.23

56.37

16.88

Merck & Co., Inc.

46.20

32.14

-30.43

3M Co.

85.03

82.07

-3.48

1In order of market capitalization as of Dec. 31, 2004. 2Price adjusted for a two-for-one stock split in 2004.

The market-timing scandal of 2003 expanded beyond a few mutual fund companies to challenge several of the foundations of the securities industry. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) followed the lead of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (seeBiographies) by taking a more active interest in any transaction that presented financial companies with opportunities to act against the public interest. As a result, directed brokerage and other “soft dollar” practices (in which brokerage firms and mutual fund companies trade noncash compensation for preferential service or product placement) were banned. The mutual fund companies were fined more than $2 billion for various infractions, setting in motion the collapse or transformation of such venerable firms as Invesco, Pilgrim Baxter (now Liberty Ridge Capital), and Putnam Investments. Even the secretive hedge funds that initially made the controversial trades were forced to register with the SEC and abide by new rules. Meanwhile, Spitzer and the SEC turned their attention to a similar array of practices at insurance companies, uncovering a host of apparent abuses.

Although the fund families that filled the headlines suffered in the eyes of investors, the mutual fund industry overall managed to expand. Total assets under management edged up 3.6% to $7.94 trillion as of November 30, led higher by $167 billion in net inflows to stock funds and $327 billion going into sophisticated hybrid funds, which combine stock and bond investments.

Mutual funds investing primarily in large-cap stocks gained only 3.78% in 2004, substantially lagging their performance in the previous year. Funds concentrating on smaller companies delivered slightly better returns, up an average of 5.27%. The biggest U.S. stock fund by assets, the Vanguard Group’s 500 Index Fund, gained 10.7% in value, while the next-largest fund, the Fidelity Group’s Magellan Fund, returned 7.5%.

An average of 1.46 billion shares changed hands every day on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)—a significant increase from 2003. In dollar terms, trading activity increased dramatically to $46.1 billion a day, up 20% from 2003 as retail investors cautiously returned to the market and hedge funds stepped up their activity. The number of stocks listed on the exchange held steady at 3,612 as new listings only slightly outnumbered companies being acquired or otherwise leaving the market. Market breadth for the year was decidedly mixed, with 2,358 issues ending higher, 1,235 losing ground, and 19 closing unchanged. Lucent Technologies, under CEO Patricia Russo (seeBiographies), remained the most commonly traded stock on the exchange, followed by Nortel Networks, General Electric, and AT&T Wireless Services.

A total of 30 of the 1,366 NYSE memberships, or “seats,” changed hands in 2004, but the price of these once-exclusive commodities plunged 33% as the year progressed. On December 14 a seat brought $1,030,000, a level not seen since 1995. The generally wary tone on the exchange was echoed by an increase in short interest, by which investors bet that stocks will fall in price. Short positions on the NYSE rose 6% over the previous year to 7,715,766,807 shares. Likewise, margin borrowing, a sign of confidence, went back on the rise, pushing aggregate margin debt on the exchange at $196 billion (nearly a three-year high) by November.

Average daily volume of stocks traded on the Nasdaq stock market climbed to 1.8 billion shares, largely owing to the increased adoption of third-party electronic trading networks, and average daily dollar volume rose to $34.6 billion. Sirius Satellite Radio became the most heavily traded stock on the market, but computer-oriented shares such as Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and Intel maintained respectable trading volumes. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq’s Apple Computer, up 201.4%, had the biggest percentage gain of all large-cap stocks. A total of 170 companies started trading on the Nasdaq in 2004, almost triple the number of initial public offerings (IPOs) completed in 2003. The most noteworthy of these debuts, Web search engine company Google, was the largest Internet offering ever, raising $1.7 billion. Although the company, founded by Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (seeBiographies), created some confusion by bypassing Wall Street underwriters to auction off shares directly to investors, the deal still sparked renewed interest in the once-desolate IPO market. Despite the increase in new listings, the number of companies trading on the Nasdaq fell to 3,358 from 3,725 as market regulators continued to prune from the list companies that no longer met size or other requirements.

The nation’s third national stock market, the American Stock Exchange (Amex), was the home of 1,273 issues, including a growing number of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other derivative investment vehicles. On average, 66 million shares a day were traded; once again, the most active security traded on the exchange continued to be the ETF equivalent of the Nasdaq 100 index.

Headlines were filled with the hunt for conflicts of interest within the securities industry on an institutional level, but on a more mundane level investors found fewer grounds for dispute in their relationships with stockbrokers and other financial advisers. The number of arbitration cases that were filed with the National Association of Securities Dealers, the market’s supervisory organization, fell 8% to 7,575.

Negative factors for the bond market were numerous. Caught between rising interest rates, the threat of resurgent inflation, and a substantially weaker dollar, sophisticated investors fled from Treasury securities into higher-yielding corporate paper or the currency advantages of euro-denominated bonds.

Investors overseas became less eager to fund the massive U.S. current-account and trade deficits, both of which climbed to record levels owing to a ballooning $2.4 trillion federal budget and continued consumer demand for cheap imports, ranging from crude oil to finished products. Fading foreign capital flows into dollar-denominated Treasury bonds weakened demand for the U.S. currency, pushing the dollar to four- and five-year lows against the Japanese yen and the euro, respectively. The unfavourable exchange rate in turn depressed the effective returns on Treasury bonds in terms of foreign currencies, creating a vicious circle that punished both bonds and the dollar.

Nonetheless, continued interest in Treasury paper, considered the safest investment in the world, allowed both prices and effective yields to end the year almost unchanged in dollar terms. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note ended the year at 4.22%, slightly below 2003 levels. The Lehman Aggregate bond index, which includes corporate, mortgage, and government agency securities as well as Treasury debt, ended the year up only 4.3%, only marginally above the return investors would have received from simply holding long-term government bonds. Investors looking for more substantial rewards flooded into corporate bonds, which are more speculative than securities backed by the U.S. government but offer higher interest rates. Even in the riskiest areas of the market, demand for corporate debt regardless of credit rating narrowed the gap (or spread) between high-yield junk and investment-grade bonds to a six-year low of three percentage points.

The weakness in the Treasury market was also felt in bond-oriented mutual fund holdings, but sophisticated managers still managed to eke out decent investment returns. Long-term government bond funds tracked by Morningstar gained 7.3% in 2004, but their short-term equivalents saw only a 0.93% increase in value. By contrast, bond funds with an international focus surged 8.91%.

Canada

Booming commodity prices and a robust domestic economy propelled the Canadian stock market, the world’s seventh largest, to its second consecutive year of positive performance. A strong Canadian dollar, however, made it difficult for manufacturing companies to export their products and left their shares from flat to lower.

As a broad measure of all stocks traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSE), the S&P/TSX Composite index climbed 12.48%. The S&P/TSX 60, a basket of the exchange’s biggest stocks, advanced 11.60%. Most sectors ended the year in positive territory, but returns were mixed. Winners were led by oil and gas shares, up 29%, and the continued rebound of information technology (IT) stocks, up 23%. Sectors in disfavour included health care companies, industrial manufacturers, and the gold group, which lists the majority of the world’s bullion-mining concerns.

Telecommunications equipment maker Nortel Networks, by far the most widely held company on the exchange, lost 25% of its value, ending the year at Can$4.16 (Can$1 = about U.S.$0.84 at year-end 2004). Other actively traded TSE stocks included industrial conglomerate Bombardier as well as Wheaton River Minerals, which made headlines on December 23 by agreeing to merge with fellow gold miner Goldcorp.

Average daily trading reached a new record level of 242.7 million shares, up 9.9% from the previous year, while the dollar value of these trades jumped to Can$3.3 billion per day, reflecting both increased volume and higher share prices. A total of 1,421 companies were listed on the exchange at year’s end, reflecting 115 IPOs.

The Canadian dollar continued to appreciate in value, reaching a 12-year high as its U.S. counterpart declined. Global demand for gold, oil, and Canada’s other commodity products helped the economy grow at a surprising pace in the first half of 2004, but the strong currency and high fuel prices tempered the expansion by summer. The Bank of Canada maintained an activist stance toward interest-rate policy, lowering its official overnight-rate target three times (in January, March, and April) before raising it twice (in September and October), each by 0.25%. As a result, the rate ended the year down 0.25% at 2.50%.

In November the national Investment Dealers Association fined three brokerage firms a total of Can$25 million for abetting trades similar to those that drew the wrath of regulators onto the U.S. securities industry. Only about 200,000 new Canadian mutual fund accounts were opened in 2004, but total assets in such funds surged an estimated 13.3% to a new record level.

Western Europe

Economic recovery in the euro zone remained sluggish, and the terrorist bombings in Madrid on March 11 further undermined business and investor confidence, adding to markets’ fragility. In the aftermath, European markets were down by between 1% and 2% in early trading, following a 1.6% drop in the DJIA. Madrid’s Ibex 35 lost 1.5%. Share prices also fell in Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Singapore, as well as in Sydney, Australia, and Seoul, S.Kor. Investors’ risk aversion became more marked in continental Europe with the drop in share prices and spike in volatilities that followed the attacks. Later in the year the impact of the U.S. dollar’s weakness on European exports caused concern.

Nevertheless, relatively high market valuations allowed companies to strengthen their balance sheets and reengage in mergers and acquisitions. Earnings had recovered substantially from 2001–02 lows, and listed companies’ profits were ahead of forecasts in 2003, rising almost 100% year on year in the euro area. European stock markets closed the third quarter with small losses, down 0.4% in local currency terms.

Investors tended to focus on finding European companies with exposure to China. Formal enlargement of the EU from 15 to 25 countries in May added only 5% to the region’s GDP and had limited impact on the long-term growth prospects for corporate earnings. To benefit, companies in the mature euro-zone countries would have to either exploit the lower cost base in the acceding 10 countries or tap into fresh demand.

From January to midyear, investors judged European equities fairly valued, but a brief rally at the end of the second quarter ended in July when corporate results disappointed. The IT and consumer sectors were especially weak, and the IT sector was afflicted by doubts over the strength of the pickup in technology spending. The big markets of the U.K., France, and Germany were lacklustre. During the year, the S&P Europe index of 350 stocks rose by less than 9%, with the French CAC 40 and the German Xetra DAX up 7.4% and 7.3%, respectively (all in euro terms), and the FTSE 100 up 7.5% in sterling terms. Many smaller European markets did far better, including Italy’s S&P/MIB (up 14.9%), the Ibex 35, which recovered to gain 17.4% for the year, Belgium’s BEL20 (30.7%), and Austria’s ATX, which soared 57.4%.

Other Countries

Investment growth turned upward in most regions during the year. Before a brief sell-off in late January, equity prices in emerging markets outperformed most other markets. Improved fundamentals and high levels of liquidity supported investor confidence. Although overall performance of emerging markets was strong, from the end of the first quarter through late May, major emerging stock markets fell sharply, following the pattern of the major stock markets of the advanced economies and indicating substantial correlation between markets. The downturn was driven in part by uncertainty about the impact of oil-price rises, as well as the effects on emerging economies of weaker-than-expected recovery in the major economies.

Asian markets, which had performed strongly in 2003, were weaker in 2004. In the first half of the year, investors worried about possible overheating in the Chinese economy, the impact of high oil prices, and the direction of U.S. official interest rates. From mid-April the equity market sell-off was by far the sharpest in Japan and other Asian markets. The Japanese markets were particularly volatile in May. Although in the first quarter the strength of Japan’s recovery exceeded expectations, the announcement on May 13 of lower-than-expected machinery orders prompted a 2% drop in the Nikkei 225 index. In the third quarter the Nikkei lost 9.6% when a disappointing second-quarter GDP result was published, but by the end of July, the TOPIX was up 3.8%, and the index ended the year up 13% in dollar terms. The Nikkei ended July up 0.7% and ended the year up 10.7% in dollar terms. India’s Sensex and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index each rose more than 13%, while China’s previously strong Shanghai and Shenzhen composite indexes plunged 15.2% and 16.5%, respectively.

The strong performance of Latin America in the third quarter took many investors by surprise. The MSCI Latin America index jumped 17% in dollar terms over the third quarter, with a range of 4% for Mexico to 28% for Argentina. Brazil rose 17%. The rally led to a return for the MSCI Latin America index of 39.8% over 12 months and of 38.7% for the S&P Latin America 40 (in dollar terms). The region easily outperformed developed stock markets and the Asia-Pacific region.

Commodities

Prices trended up over the year, boosted by demand for raw materials from China. After more than a decade of relatively low prices for their goods, minerals and metals producers enjoyed an outstandingly good year. On December 1 the Reuters-CRB index, a basket of 17 commodity futures tracked by investors, hit a 23-year high.

Oil took centre stage. Speculation by noncommercial traders—including institutional investors and hedge funds—was blamed for much of the increase in price during 2004. As most other markets began to lose steam through the year, traders turned their attention to commodities in general—and oil in particular. Speculative activity rose sharply in expectation of higher prices. By late November, U.S. crude prices were still around $49 a barrel, although $6 down from late October’s record, as the highest OPEC production in 25 years rebuilt stocks in consuming countries.

In late November, as the dollar fell to a record low against the euro, gold reached $450 a troy ounce for the first time since June 1988. Global gold equity indexes moved less strongly, though, on fears that the rally was not sustainable. Consumer demand for gold in the second quarter of 2004 rose 25% in dollar terms as gold reclaimed safe-haven status and a weaker dollar made dollar-denominated gold cheaper for holders of other currencies, especially the surging euro.

Even coffee, after four years of prices so depressed that many growers abandoned the crop, made a substantial, if still fragile, recovery. The price rose from an average of 48 cents a pound in 2002 to an average of 60.8 cents a pound in March 2004.

The Economist Commodity Price All Items Dollar index ended 2004 up 1.8%. According to the index, food was down 2.9%, with metals (21.1%), oil (34.1%), and gold (6.5%) up.

Business Overview

For the U.S. economy 2004 was a year with two faces. At times the economy seemed to have shed the last traces of the past recession, yet it also seemed to be bogged down throughout the year; the annual growth rate of gross domestic product fell to 3.5% by late 2004 after having been on a 5% pace earlier in the year. Job losses waned and waxed with each month, and many sectors contended with serious price hikes. The health of the economy became a central issue of the U.S. presidential campaign as Pres. George W. Bush pointed to indicators of economic recovery while his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, cited continued layoffs as a sign that the economy was still fragile. Each candidate had plenty of evidence to bolster his case. (SeeWorld Affairs:United States:Special Report.) The outsourcing of jobs to less-developed countries was also a significant economic issue in the campaign, and the number of jobs being outsourced from the United States continued to increase during the year. (SeeSpecial Report.)

Although price inflation hit sectors that ranged from steel production to titanium mining, no industry was more defined by high prices in 2004 than the energy industry. Producers of oil and gas, coal-mining concerns, and other energy companies benefited from skyrocketing prices. Crude-oil prices rose above $55 per barrel in late October, the highest price posted since the New York Mercantile Exchange began trading oil in 1983. Oil prices, historically adjusted, remained below their all-time highs of the early 1980s; nevertheless, they translated into pain for consumers. Gasoline prices in the U.S., for example, remained above $2 per gallon for most of 2004. The price hikes had a number of causes, including low producer inventories and unstable global conditions. Energy traders said that fears about global conditions at times created a $10-per-barrel risk premium in oil-futures trading. Even OPEC, which for decades had been able to control oil prices, proved powerless to manage prices in 2004. Few analysts expected any halt to the rise of oil prices in the short term. Demand was being driven by China’s growing thirst for oil, which at 5.5 million bbl a day was second only to that of the U.S., and supply remained tight; in 2004 spare oil-pumping capacity, which was about one million barrels per day, was no greater than what it was in 1973, but the demand for oil had risen by 44% since then.

Despite being flooded with cash, few oil companies were pushing to find new drilling opportunities. The six global oil “supermajors,” including ExxonMobil and TotalFina Elf, were expected to gain $138 billion in cash flow in 2004, up 28% from 2003, but at the same time, the capital spending by these companies was expected to rise only 8%. Top oil companies concentrated instead on selling off poorly performing assets and buying back shares. Some analysts predicted an increase in exploration activity in 2005, since energy firms gained a tax break in October 2004 for the domestic production of oil and gas, but many analysts expected most new activity to come from low-risk efforts to boost production at existing sites.

Not all top oil producers flourished in 2004, however. Notably, Royal Dutch/Shell Group revealed that it had been greatly overstating its oil and gas reserves, and in January it reduced its proven reserves by 22%—by nearly four billion barrels, which was worth about $400 million. The subsequent shock to its stock value, along with lawsuits and government probes, caused Shell’s board to oust its chairman, Sir Philip Watts, and the company’s head of exploration and production, Walter van de Vijver. After he was sacked, van de Vijver claimed that he had been warning Shell officials since 2001 that reserve levels were being inflated. Buoyed by increased revenues from price hikes as the year went on, Shell managed to control the crisis and in August settled with the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission without admitting or denying its responsibility for the overbooking.

Other top oil companies were not so lucky. Yukos, which was Russia’s largest oil producer and accounted for 2% of global oil production, spent 2004 in a desperate fight for its life. Following the jailing of Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky for fraud and tax evasion in October 2003, the Russian government claimed that Yukos owed back taxes that at times were estimated to be in the $28 billion range. Yukos maintained that it could not make those payments. In December the Russian government sold off the company’s major production facilities to the previously unknown BaikalFinansGroup, and it was expected to continue to dismember the company in 2005. In what appeared to be a last bid to avoid destruction, Yukos filed for bankruptcy protection in a Texas court, though Yukos’s argument that its Houston-based banking accounts qualified it as having a presence in the U.S. and thus having protection under U.S. laws was immediately challenged. Despite this turmoil, Western oil companies increased their involvement in Russia. In September ConocoPhillips paid nearly $2 billion for the government’s stake in Lukoil, which was Russia’s second largest oil producer.

Electric utilities had disparate results, since many utilities had to contend with the high production costs caused by soaring oil prices and a doubling of the price of coal. Some companies, having cleaned up their balance sheets and sold off underperforming units, greatly outperformed analyst expectations. TXU Corp., for example, posted a 69% increase in net income in the third quarter of 2004 compared with the same period in 2003. Profits fell, however, for a number of other utilities, including Northeast Utilities, Duquesne Light Holdings, Ameren, and Xcel Energy. (SeeSidebar.)

The airline industry was defined by bankruptcies, labour battles, and rising costs, as it had been since 2001. Rising costs in particular were a serious problem for many airlines, crippling the slight recoveries some carriers had enjoyed early in 2004. Airlines typically needed oil prices to be no more than $33 per barrel to break even, so it was a serious blow when prices soared to the $40–$50-per-barrel range for most of the year.

Few domestic carriers ended 2004 in good shape. United Airlines remained under bankruptcy protection, having failed to win federal loan guarantees; US Airways filed for bankruptcy for the second time in two years in September, and it indicated that unless it won major labour concessions, it would have to start to liquidate its assets in early 2005. Even discount airlines were not immune, as ATA Airlines filed for bankruptcy in October. Delta Airlines, which unlike most of its competitors had fairly easily weathered the economic storm following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, flirted with bankruptcy throughout the year. It entered into desperate negotiations with its unions to stave off collapse and planned to lay off 12% of its workforce. Delta had posted losses of $5.6 billion since 2001 and had piled up more than $20 billion in debt. Were Delta to file for bankruptcy, about 42% of the American air-carrier industry would be under court protection.

Aircraft producers were in no better shape. The Boeing Co. still trailed its European rival Airbus in the construction of commercial jets and spent much of the year embroiled in scandal as a former top U.S. Air Force weapons buyer, Darleen Druyun—who later became a Boeing executive—admitted that she had favoured Boeing in rewarding air force contracts and that Boeing would not have won some bids without her influence. Boeing rivals such as Lockheed Martin Corp. called for further investigations into past Boeing deals, and analysts predicted that Boeing would ultimately have to pay substantial fines and possibly face strong third-party monitoring.

Domestic carmakers had a tumultuous year, the result of sporadic sales hindered by rising gasoline prices and overproduction, estimated at 14 million vehicles. As of September, total year-to-date American auto sales were down 5.6% compared with 2003. Car sales were down 2.4% from previous-year totals, although light-truck sales were up 12.4%. The Big Three American carmakers continued to lag behind their foreign competitors in terms of profitability. Toyota Motor Corp., for example, earned about 10 times as much per vehicle as General Motors Corp. (GM), while Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler posted losses per vehicle because of aggressive discounting. The Big Three were giving up to $5,000 in discounts per car, while their Japanese rivals were providing only up to one-half that figure.

Another growing problem for American carmakers was the increased burden of their massive pension and employee medical programs. GM, which covered the health care costs of 1.1 million current and former employees and could face $68 billion in retirement health care costs over the next few decades, had annual health care spending of $5.1 billion in 2004, compared with $3 billion in 1996. Ford’s obligations rose to an average of $12,443 per worker, compared with an inflation-adjusted figure of $2,300 per employee in 1970. Health care costs for Japanese carmakers were nowhere near as high.

Ford, under the leadership of Bill Ford Jr. (Henry Ford’s great-grandson), moved away from volume-oriented to value-oriented business strategies, and it saw a combination of dwindling market share and increasing revenues. Ford’s American market share as of September was 11.7%, less than Toyota’s 14.5% share and down from Ford’s 25.4% market share a decade before. Although its market share had dwindled, Ford rebounded financially. The company posted $537 million in earnings for the third quarter of 2004, compared with $242 million in the same period in 2003. Ford also took steps to shore up its troubled European operations by slashing jobs at its underperforming Jaguar unit.

GM remained the world’s largest carmaker, but it had a troubled year. Its third-quarter earnings fell short of analysts’ expectations—$440 million, compared with $448 million in the third quarter of 2003. Worse, a large part of these earnings came from GM’s lending operations, since its automotive operations lost $130 million, one of its worst performances in a decade. GM also suffered from declines in its European businesses (posting a $236 million loss in the third quarter alone). To reduce expenses, GM slashed 12,000 jobs in Europe and mandated that its global units standardize parts and design cars so that they could be sold in any country with few alterations—a break from GM’s long tradition of giving overseas units a fair degree of autonomy. GM also tried to push into new markets such as China, where it planned to spend up to $3 billion by 2007 to beef up production, particularly of luxury cars. Analysts estimated that China could provide 20% of the Cadillac customer base by 2010.

DaimlerChrysler had a successful year. It hammered out an agreement with the United Auto Workers in which the union agreed to a two-tier pay scale and some outsourcing, and DaimlerChrysler posted a $1.21 billion profit for the third quarter of 2004. Analysts said that there were promising signs for the carmaker’s future growth—for one thing, its upcoming product line was the freshest of the Big Three, since it was expected that 88% of its volume would be replaced by 2008, compared with 66% for Ford and GM. Yet the corporation did not escape controversy. In April DaimlerChrysler chose not to bail out troubled Mitsubishi Motors, of which it was the largest shareholder. It was a blow to CEO Jürgen Schrempp, who had been a strong advocate of increasing DaimlerChrysler’s ownership of global competitors such as Mitsubishi and Hyundai.

Japanese carmakers put in stronger performances on the whole than their American counterparts but faced their own share of troubles. Mitsubishi was left reeling after DaimlerChrysler declined to extend it cash, and it devised a restructuring plan that would entail cutting more than 10,000 jobs. Honda’s net income cratered owing to slumping sales in North America. Other Japanese carmakers had a sunnier year, none more so than Toyota. Toyota cemented its position as the world’s second largest carmaker, and it was the most profitable; the company reported $2.5 billion in net income for the second quarter of 2004, more than the profits of GM and Ford combined. Toyota benefited from an increase in sales worldwide (Asian sales alone shot up 65% over 2003), and it was set on achieving a 15% global market share by the end of the decade, up from its current 10% position.

By contrast, many European carmakers had an indifferent-to-down year, and some undertook major renovations to improve their businesses. Volkswagen, which saw its net profit fall 65% in the third quarter, planned to further increase its Chinese operations, and it hired Wolfgang Bernhard, a former top official at Chrysler, to revive its depressed auto business. Volkswagen was the largest foreign carmaker in China and was planning to open a $240 million factory there to step up production.

China was a major factor in the battering of the American textile sector, and American textile companies were bracing for an event that could shatter the domestic industry. On Jan. 1, 2005, a 40-year-old system of quotas on Chinese-made clothing was to end, and many expected Chinese manufacturers to flood the U.S. with inexpensive apparel. The World Trade Organization estimated that once the quotas ended, Chinese apparel would account for 50% of American textile imports, up from roughly 16% in 2004. Saying that the import wave could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs, American textile makers ferociously lobbied the Bush administration for renewed protections.

Many textile makers engaged in desperate pricing strategies to push up sagging revenues. Levi Strauss & Co., for example, launched a new line of jeans, the price of which was half that of its core lines. Levi Strauss had shuttered all its American operations and had cut more than 75% of its staff. Other humbled former giants in the American textile industry had chosen to be acquired by private investment groups. Galey & Lord Inc. filed for bankruptcy for a second time as part of its acquisition by buyout firm Patriarch Partners. Cone Mills and Guilford Mills undertook similar moves.

The American steel industry, which had come close to collapse just a few years earlier, was in the midst of a rebirth. Solid years were posted by the new top steelmakers, including U.S. Steel Corp., which returned to profitability in the first quarter and kept going strong throughout the year. The greatest transformation came in October, however, when International Steel Group (ISG), which had gone public in December 2003, was sold to the Mittal family. The family, which was from India and had interests in steel mills in 14 countries, planned to merge ISG with the steel companies it already owned—Ispat International and LNM Group—to form the world’s largest steel company.

Steelmakers around the globe benefited from a tide of rising steel prices that lifted every boat in the harbour. The price of domestic hot-rolled steel was $650 a ton late in the summer of 2004, compared with $260 a ton the year before. Behind this price wave was one key factor—China, whose insatiable demand for steel (about double the annual production of steel in the U.S.) was so great that some producers revived long-shuttered steel mills to meet production needs. A series of strikes at several North American mines also affected prices.

As the ISG merger demonstrated, however, American steelmakers might soon have to decide whether to go global. Competition was increasing. Luxembourg’s Arcelor bought a stake in a major Brazilian crude-steel producer, CST, and planned to transfer much of its production from Europe to Brazil in order to cut costs, a move that would transform Brazil into a top steel-producing nation. China both boosted steel prices and presented a growing threat to American steelmakers. China’s top steelmaker, Shanghai Baosteel Corp., was rapidly expanding its production capability and, unlike its American competitors, did not have to deal with pension-related costs. In addition, it was backed by generous government support.

The price of aluminum rose through the year, hitting a nine-year high in 2004, and inflated prices were expected to be the norm for the next two years, with estimates for 2005 of about $1,730 per metric ton. The American annual rate of production as of September was 2.5 million metric tons, down 7.7% from the 2003 annual rate of 2.7 million metric tons. Top producers such as Alcan pursued ambitious plans to expand market share. Alcan, which had purchased Pechiney in late 2003, planned to spin off its rolled-products assets to resolve antitrust issues with regulators. The newly formed company, called Novelis, would become the world’s largest producer of aluminum rolled products.

Long-term high prices were reached in almost every metals sector, from platinum (which hit a 24-year high) to titanium (up 100% over 2003) to silver (which reached a 17-year high). The price of gold had risen 50% in the past two years and hit $458 per troy ounce, a 16-year high, late in the year. For much of the year, the price remained above the $400 mark, a psychologically important achievement that spurred investors’ belief that gold’s price run would extend for some time. (There were signs late in the year, however, that metal prices had peaked.)

The allure of high gold prices led to ambitious maneuvering in the gold-mining sector. Russia’s top metal company, Norilsk Nickel, in March purchased a 20% stake in Gold Fields, a major South African mining company, and became its largest shareholder. A tentative merger agreement between Gold Fields and Canada’s Iamgold (which had failed to buy Wheaton River Minerals) was challenged by Harmony Gold Mining, which in October launched a hostile takeover bid for Gold Fields. Norilsk supported the hostile bid against the wishes of other Gold Fields shareholders. If the Harmony–Gold Fields merger succeeded, it would create the largest gold producer in the world, knocking leader Newmont Mining into second place.

The paper-and-timber industry slowly recovered from the malaise of the past few years. The weak U.S. dollar helped a number of American paper companies to achieve better cost structures for exports, while Canadian paper manufacturers, which exported 80% of Canada’s paper shipments to the U.S., improved their profitability. Many storied paper companies, however, spent the year looking for ways to cut their ties to traditional paper manufacturing. Boise Cascade Corp. sold off its paper- and timber-manufacturing assets to private-equity investment firm Madison Dearborn in July and decided to concentrate on its Office Max office-supplies retail chain, which it had purchased in 2003. Louisiana Pacific Corp. also sold off its remaining timber assets.

Many chemical companies scrambled to compete with the largest American chemical maker, Dow Chemical Co., which had slashed its workforce by 7% in 2003 and had embarked on a campaign of aggressive cost cutting. Lyondell Chemical Co.’s $2.3 billion acquisition of Millennium Chemicals Inc., which created the third largest publicly held chemical company in North America, was completed in response to Dow’s growing threat. DuPont Co. planned to cut about 6% of its workforce by the end of the year—in response, it said, to the rise in natural gas prices and its desire to push into faster-growing markets, such as South America and Asia. Also in 2004, U.S. and European prosecutors stepped up investigations into alleged price-fixing by top chemical companies.

At long last the hotel sector appeared to have recovered from the post-9/11 collapse of the travel industry. Top American hotel operator Marriott International Inc. posted third-quarter profits that showed a 45% increase compared with the same period in 2003 as its room rates increased faster than occupancy for the first time since 9/11. Revenue per available room, the primary measure of fiscal health for the industry, rose by 8.3% for North American hotels in the third quarter, and international customers at American hotels rose by 21%—a sign that tourism and business travel had resumed its normal pace.

A number of hoteliers, including Choice Hotels, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, and InterContinental Hotels Group, planned new boutique chains that offered relatively cheap rooms ($100 or less a night) with improved amenities—a sort of “business-class” hotel. These new boutique hotels were meant to trump rivals such as Hilton Hotels and Best Western in the bid for the business traveler’s dollar, as many market players believed the hotel industry might be oversaturated and highly competitive in the next few years. It was expected that about 100,000 new rooms would be built in 2005, up from 75,000 in 2004.

Other industries remained embroiled in scandals and political battles. Tobacco manufacturers underwent yet another round of lawsuits and investigations, years after a $250 billion manufacturer settlement with U.S. state governments. This time the federal government led the charge. In September the case brought by the Department of Justice opened against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Brown & Williamson. The case alleged that the companies, by colluding to downplay and hide smoking risks, had violated the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a statute that heretofore had usually been applied against organized crime. The federal government sought to have the companies return about $280 billion in profits. Besieged by such cases and losing market share to importers and to discount cigarette manufacturers (whose market share had risen since 1977 from 2% to 12%), top cigarette manufacturers considered accepting the once unthinkable—Food and Drug Administration (FDA) jurisdiction over tobacco products. Tobacco manufacturers sought a compromise; they would accept government regulation (which would include such changes as reduced marketing, greater disclosure of health hazards, and limits on tar and nicotine content) in exchange for the end of 60-year-old production quotas that had kept domestic crop prices high. The tobacco industry achieved an enormous victory, however, when lawmakers stripped out the FDA regulation requirements during negotiations to draft the final $10.1 billion quota buyout bill (which had been attached to a massive corporate tax-cutting bill). The bill, which was signed into law by President Bush in October, provided roughly $9.6 billion in compensation to tobacco growers in exchange for the end, after the 2004 growing season, of the federal programs regulating tobacco production.

The insurance industry was roiled when New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer (seeBiographies) began probes into fraud and bid rigging in the insurance industry. In particular, he investigated allegations that Marsh & McLennan, the world’s biggest insurance broker, had received payments from insurance companies in exchange for sending client business to insurers and that the firm had concocted false bids. In October Spitzer announced that he was suing Marsh in civil court and that two executives at insurer American International Group had pleaded guilty to bid rigging.

The pharmaceuticals industry also bore the brunt of political attacks throughout 2004. Drug pricing was a critical issue during the presidential campaign, with Democratic candidate Kerry excoriating large drug companies for high prices. American demand for cheaper Canadian drugs at times led to shortages in Canada, and some Canadian drug sellers began importing drugs from countries with even tighter price controls, such as Australia, to meet demand. Nevertheless, in trade negotiations during the summer, the U.S. sought increased protections against foreign generic-drug manufacturers.

Brand-name drugmakers relied on the strategy of having a few “blockbuster” drugs generate the lion’s share of their revenues and of creating variations of such drugs in order to replace market share when the initial drug went generic. By relying on a core of therapeutic drugs for revenues, however, drugmakers were increasingly at risk when a particular cash-cow drug encountered controversy. The company that presented the most notable example of this situation in 2004 was Merck, which had to pull its successful painkiller Vioxx from store shelves after it acknowledged that the drug had a host of dangerous side effects, including an increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. Merck had spent tens of millions of dollars to advertise Vioxx, which had racked up sales of $2.5 billion in 2003, roughly 11% of Merck’s total revenues. Analysts speculated that Merck, deprived of its Vioxx revenues and faced with many consumer lawsuits, could be the target of a hostile takeover or could be forced into a defensive merger.

Merger activity in the pharmaceuticals industry was heavy. French drugmaker Sanofi-Synthelabo won a $65 billion takeover bid for its French-German rival, Aventis, to create the world’s third largest drug company. The merger, which was encouraged by the French government, might benefit from the success of a new drug created by Aventis that combatted both obesity and smoking. Bayer bought the over-the-counter-drug business of Swiss conglomerate Roche to create the world’s largest nonprescription drugmaker.

Manufacturers of generic drugs faced their own problems. Although the market for generic drugs was still enormous (about $13.6 billion in generic drugs were sold in 2004, up 9% from 2003), generics faced heightened competition from less-developed countries such as India. Furthermore, generics were faced with some grim facts—fewer patents for top-selling branded drugs were expected to expire in the next few years than in the recent past, and legal challenges from brand-name manufacturers were expected to increase. For example, Alpharma Inc., which began selling the first generic version of Pfizer’s anticonvulsant drug Neurontin in October, was at the same time in court with Pfizer, which accused Alpharma of transgressing its patents.

Some generic manufacturers decided to join forces with their former competitors. The second largest generic manufacturer, Mylan Laboratories, took steps to acquire King Pharmaceuticals in a $4 billion deal that would enable Mylan to break into the branded-drug business. In a variation on the theme, branded-drug manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline signed deals with generic manufacturers to produce authorized generic versions of its former patent-protected drugs, such as Paxil.